More Best of 1997

[cannibal at CUTEY.COM]

Jon writes:

>Disagree. It's been a great year for new releases. A lot of bands I've
>been into for years are now the mainstream. Q's cover discs are no
>longer Hothouse Flowers and Sheryl Crow, but are Prodge, Radiohead,
>Verve etc. Maybe there is no underground anymore.

There is no underground if you read Q, you are right there! Radiohead
or The Verve etc. were not even really "underground" 5 years ago IMO...
more like "those British 'indie' bands that NME and MM write about all
the time"... occasionally I get Ptolemaic Terrascope, which is a great
UG music source... or WIRE... Mojo I also buy occasionally...


>Highlights...
>
>Spiritualized _ Ladies And Gentlemen, We Are Floating In Space
>Primal Scream - Vanishing Point and Echo Dek
>HW - 1999 & DH
>Chemical Brothers - Drill Your Own Hole
>Radiohead - OK Computer
>Supergrass - In it For the Money
>Bentley Rythm Ace - S/T
>Photek - Modus Operandi
>Verve - Urban Hymns
>Charlatans - Telling Stories
>Cornershop - When I was Born For The 7th Time
>Prodigy - Fat Of The Land
>Foo Fighters - Colour and Shape
>Lee Scratch Perry Box Set

Hmm.. all these bands save 4 (3 if I don't count Foo Fighters as Nirvana)
were regular NME/MM material last time I read those 5 years ago... Hawkwind
are of course exempt from that calculation... I mean... Charlatans?
The Stone Roses clone-band with one or two good pop songs on "Some
Friendly"?? The band with the keyboard player who robbed the post office?
Why the hell haven't they split like the rest of that crop, eh??!!

Or more recent britpop fluffheads Supergrass... I'll admit to being charmed
by their first one, fun throwaway rockin 60s pop...ok... but, beyond that...??
Foo Fighters... eh... that video sucks! Huh.. huhuh... huh... (at least ex
Germ, Pat Smear, found a job that pays...?). I guess there are alot worse
things than Foo Fighters but they are not excactly breaking ground either..?

Prodigy... sigh... that Psycho-Clown trend... ("Clownwave"!?? Along with
Marilyn Manson and Psycho Killah Klown Posse... (or whatever!))

Radiohead... I don't get it here... there's all the talk that they
are so fresh and innovative though I hear nothing I haven't really
heard before... some agreeably nice tunes though?

I'd give thumbs up for Chemical Bros though, even if I don't own
any of their stuff. Rockin/dancey/innovative all at once if nothing
else.

I kinda like this Bentley's Rhytm Ace track on this freebie compilation I
have...

>Big Bummer - Dinasaur Jr. split.

Oh, c'mon, they/he ceased being a real band years ago anyway and had just been
treading MTV waters in vain ever since the Brief Grunge Age flooded all those
bands up the charts, and letting most get washed so far back down on their
asses they never got back up... I mean, J. Mascis playing golf to a slow
booooring song >sigh<!!! (theo? need a new caddie? Look up "J. Mascis" in
Massachusetts.)


>
>pretty obvious stuff for me thses days. No more dodgy noise merchants
>making "difficult" music for me, middle age I guess....

What next? Phil Collins? Sting? eh? You better find some way to get
high without keelin' over! Or sumptin' to save you from "Dad rock" Hell
in 10 years! :))

>Interpreter was 1996 otherwise I'd have ranked it too!

Hmm. Oh shit, how weird. I was COMPLETELY unaware of it till this last summer
and bought it then assuming it was new! Strangely enough, the OP8 CDS was
one of a bunch I won in a dodgy Julian Cope radio contest!! (probably
the only (lousy) entry - via email...!)

Christian

PS, Jon: I knew all along about Grant Morrison's muse(s) (meeses??)
- it's not like it hasn't been obvious the past decade or more!!!! :)